But, also at the meeting, there was someone who was a malicious gossip, and jealous. He saw the offer not as noble but as selfish, and unchaste. The old blacksmith, who also acted as the farrier, was nicknamed La Bûche, or The Log, because of his bull neck, but also because of his blunt character. His name was actually Jules. La Bûche feared that Joséphine, who was impossibly beautiful and a quasi-widow, wanted to go up there not to look at the lions and tigers, but because she was attracted to their master. Jules knew perfectly well that she had not slept with the doctor for years. He looked after their horses and had built them a wrought-iron balustrade, and he had seen that when the doctor returned from work, he barely kissed her on the cheek and addressed her formally. He was absolutely sure that in the five years since the doctor had taken over his father’s practice, he had touched the bodies of everyone in the area, but never his wife’s. Malicious gossip … that was the fox that was always there prowling around the houses, sticking close to the villagers in the certainty of getting a tasty morsel.

August 2017

August 2017

In the film world more than any other, your survival depends on the scent you give off. When it’s the sweet smell of success, the offers and invitations come flooding in. But when an odour of bad luck begins to cling to you, when your films flop and your projects are abandoned, then the telephone stops ringing. In cinema more than in any other business, people like you when they need you; they like you because you are useful. Franck knew that what was true for him as a producer was also true for Lise as an actress. The strange thing about it was that he was more upset than she was. He of all people knew that an actor who no longer acts is like an animal left behind by the pack, a feral dog no one wants. Faced with that there are two options: rebel or retreat. The risk is that you start seeing everyone else as enemies.